Chapter 40
Almost there. Paradise gripped her bare toes into the ten-foot-high fence and, wincing at the metal biting into her bare skin, inched her
way to the top. Her sandals awaited her on the other side—if she made it. The panther roared and hissed behind the higher
fence separating them. Her right hand slapped the fence’s top rail, but the muscles in her arms burned from hanging on.
She forced herself to climb a little more until her left hand gripped the top as well. She gathered her strength for the final
push, but her right hand slipped. She grabbed at the fence again and missed.
The frantic movement dislodged her from her perch, and she plummeted to the ground. The force of the fall left her gasping
for air on the red dirt, and the jaguar leaped at the other side of the fence to try to grab her.
She sat up and brushed the dirt from her face and hair. “You’re a beautiful boy, aren’t you?” If she talked to it in a soothing
voice, maybe the big cat would calm down. The sun on the cat’s fur picked out the detail of the spots showing through the
black.
The collar.
She pulled the collar from her back pocket and held it toward the fence for him to smell. Instead of soothing him, it enraged him. He snarled and leaped at the fence again, and she scuttled back in the dirt.
The panther wasn’t paying attention to her though. Its striking blue eyes watched something behind her. She turned but saw
nothing. Then the sound of an engine reverberated through the treetops and tires popped on gravel. Was Angela back to finish
the job? Paradise stood and faced the vehicle, but it wasn’t the van that had brought her here.
The white truck wasn’t familiar, but the driver was. Creed Greene. Had he followed her while investigating?
“Creed! I’ve never been so glad to see anyone in my life.” She went to the gate. “Do you have a key?”
“Looks like Abyss would like to meet you. Or eat you.”
He laughed at his joke, but something in his eyes made her pulse skip. “Creed? How did you know I was here?”
“Bear called me to tidy up his mess. Typical of him.”
“You know him?”
“My bank account knows him well. He paid well for terrorizing you with the rattlesnake and everything else. Warren’s an old
friend from our teen years, and he enlisted my help. For a good price too. I’ve been the face behind everything—the texts,
all the efforts to stop you. I can’t remember when I enjoyed something more than terrorizing you, but the best is yet to come.”
He came close enough for her to catch a whiff of his cologne. “Abyss likes to work for his food. We won’t make it easy for
him.”
He intends to kill me.
“You don’t want to be dragged into a murder case, do you? Angela and Bear killed my parents, and Drew’s father.”
“You think that’s news to me? Bear enlisted my help when you first came back.
We’d hoped you all would stay busy with the problems at the park and your obsession with digging into a twenty-year-old murder would evaporate, but you’re the persistent sort, aren’t you?
Just remember, you brought this on yourself.
We tried everything to convince you to let it alone. ”
“Even training a leopard to track people?”
His smile didn’t reach his eyes. “I share Bear’s passion for big cats. We had great fun training the two, but our jaguar is
especially proficient at tracking prey. You’re about to find out just how good Abyss is.”
She suppressed a shudder. “You haven’t killed anyone yet, Creed. There’s no need to make yourself the focus of a murder now.
Let me go and I won’t implicate you in anything. You’ll be the man who saved me, a hero in everyone’s eyes.”
“You think I’m stupid?” He slammed his palm against the fence, and it shuddered and clanged enough that the panther sprang
away with a snarl. “I’m in too deep after I had to take care of Bea and remove evidence from the sheriff’s department. No
loose ends. All the evidence is gone.”
He’d killed Bea. “You killed her for money?”
“What else? It’s her own fault. Bea thought Gerald was having an affair with Becky, so Bea had been watching the house. She
saw the murders and decided to blackmail Angela. Bear finally had me put an end to the blackmail—and Bea.”
Paradise struggled for something to say, some way to convince Creed to let her go, but the words wouldn’t come. He’d been
involved right from the beginning.
The indecision vanished from his face, and his eyes went hard. He didn’t speak but went along to the side fence and approached the big cat. The jaguar came close and made a chuffing noise of happiness at seeing him. “You’re hungry, aren’t you? Just a little longer, and you can have fresh meat.”
Creed disappeared inside the small shed beside the main enclosure. Paradise heard a creaking sound and the gate began to open
between her and Abyss. Not enough for him to get through, but the panther sprang at it and thrust his paw through the opening.
She backed away.
Creed reappeared and came around to where she stood with her back pressed against the outside fence. “It will take him a while
to shred through that, but make no mistake, those claws will be plenty sharp enough when he reaches you. Abyss is a terrific
hunter. You can spend your last few minutes alive remembering all the ways you could have acted differently and saved yourself.”
He strode toward his truck and didn’t look back.
Paradise watched the jaguar worry the gate, pulling at the metal with his scalpel-like two-inch claws until the gate began
to bend back toward the inside. How long did she have? Her muscles found new strength, and she leaped at the fence and began
to climb again. Her feet hurt and bled as she climbed and fought her way to the top. With both hands on the rail, she spared
a glance toward the panther again. His head was nearly through.
With a final scrambling of her feet, she heaved her left leg over the top and dropped onto the other side of the perimeter.
Her hands couldn’t hold on any longer, and she fell to the ground as Abyss charged through the bent and mangled gate.
Snarling, the jaguar paced the fence, but he couldn’t get to her. In the next instant the big cat leaped onto the fence and
began to climb. The inner fence was angled inward to keep in the predators, but the other fence had no such safety feature.
Paradise barely took time to shove her feet into her sandals. She ran down the dirt track to where it split into a Y. Which way should she go to get to the road? If the panther succeeded in climbing the fence, tracking her would be easy.
She felt her back pocket for the item she’d picked up in the truck. The screwdriver wouldn’t be much of a weapon, but it was
all she had.
Stymied. Blake vibrated with the need to do something, but he and Drew sat paralyzed in the truck waiting for direction. He didn’t dare head for a location in case he was in the
exact wrong spot to save Paradise.
The seconds ticked by like hours as he considered what to do. Blake’s phone rang, and he grabbed it. “It’s the governor.”
“Blake, I pulled some strings and did a trace on Angela’s bank account for the past year. And Bear’s. He’s been paying a Creed
Greene ten thousand dollars every two months for the past six months. He appears to work in the sheriff’s department in Baldwin
County, so I suspect some involvement with whatever Angela and Bear are doing.”
It all slammed into place with a sickening thud in Blake’s core. “Since Paradise came back and started poking into her parents’
murders, Creed’s had it in for her. It makes sense. It has to be Creed. And he’s had a few wild animals. Did you happen to
look up any property he owns? I know of one piece of land where he’s kept wolverines.” But no big cats that they could see.
“He has three properties in Baldwin County.” The governor rattled off the first two locations.
“I know about those.”
“The last one is along Nolte Creek, and it’s an odd shape that winds back to another area. Did you search all of it?”
Blake headed for the truck with Drew running beside him. “We’ll head there now.”
“I’m getting in touch with the state police since the sheriff’s department is compromised. I’ll have them send out some officers.”
“Thanks again.” Blake ended the call and held out the address to Drew. “Get me directions and send this to Mason.”
Before Drew could contact him, Blake’s phone sounded with a call from Mason. “Hey, buddy, you find anything?”
“I just spotted a black panther!”
Mason’s voice was nearly a scream in Blake’s ear and he held the phone out an inch. “Where?”
“Off Nolte Creek. I’m out with Dad and we’re driving around and flying the drone. I almost didn’t see it in the shadows, but
then it looked up. It’s got blue eyes, Blake. I’ve never seen that before. And it’s a big cat. Huge. I’ll bet it’s three hundred
pounds and over six feet long not counting the tail.”
“That’s close to us. We’re only five miles from there.” Blake headed for the truck and motioned for Drew to get in too. “Keep
the cat in sight and watch for Paradise. We’re on our way. Call Drew with updates because I’ll be driving.”
Blake started the truck and pulled away from the property with a plume of dust behind him. At least they were close. He prayed
for Paradise’s safety and for her to know help was coming.
Drew buckled his seat belt when the alarm began to ding. “That Mason is a good kid. He’s streaming the video from his drone
straight to my phone. I see the panther, and it’s on a mission. I’m afraid it might be tracking something. And the kid is
right—it’s huge.”
Blake accelerated. It had to be tracking Paradise, but they were only a mile away from the property.
A white truck passed, going the opposite direction.
“That was Creed Greene!” Blake slammed on his brakes, then shook his head and resumed driving.
“I’m not going after him. He’d only lie anyway. Does the drone see her at all?”
“No. Oh, wait, there she is. She’s only a few yards ahead of the cat. She’s stopping and facing it with something in her hands.
Maybe a screwdriver? She’s holding it like a knife, but I don’t think it’s going to stop that panther.”
Drew gestured. “Turn right here at the next little drive. I think it’s all dirt.”
Blake gripped the steering wheel. “Get your gun ready.” The truck fishtailed as he made the right turn without slowing. “Any
idea how far?”
“I can’t tell for sure. Not far though.”
The track was tight with vegetation brushing both sides of his pickup. The hump in the middle of the path meant that the truck
tried to head for the ditch every chance it got, and he didn’t dare go as fast as he’d like around the curves in case he came
out of one and hit Paradise.
“That kid deserves a medal! He’s got the drone dive-bombing the cat. The panther looks like it’s hissing and spitting at the
thing, and it’s not watching Paradise. I hope she takes the opportunity to run while the cat is distracted. It might gain
enough time for us to get there.”
Where was she? Blake tried to peer through the shadows cast by the big trees on both sides of the truck. Was this even the
right drive? He still hadn’t spotted anything that might hold big cats.